Pray for orality

Pray for those attending the Recording and Media Preparation Workshop in mid-May. This will provide an opportunity for training in recording OneStory materials from Bible storying projects. Pray for good understanding, as the training will be in English, which is a second language for most of the learners. Ask the Lord for good communication between the coaches and participants so the training goes smoothly.

Pray for Oral Bible Storytellers in the Sepik Province. Pray for those in the Kwomtari, Kukwo (Urim), Pouye, Malinguat, Kombio and Urat languages as well as the Tok Pisin team in city of Wewak. Thank the Lord for the Bible stories that are being told in these language communities and bringing encouragement and blessing to the Body of Christ there.

Ask the Lord to give the leadership of the Bible Translation Association wisdom as they develop a roadmap for the Oral Bible Storytelling work. Facilitators in 8-9 language communities in the East Papua Area have been trained. This training has now been multiplied to seven more languages in the Sepik* in the last two years. Additional training needs have been identified that will equip facilitators and trainers to prepare them well in training others. Many more languages are asking for training in Oral Bible Storytelling.

*The Sepik refers to the region of the Sepik River, the longest river on the island of New Guinea

Thank the Lord for the good and profitable Oral Bible Storytelling (OBS) workshop held in Wewak for the seven language groups. This is the third in a series of four that are planned for these languages. Praise the Lord for training given to a number of the Sepik participants showiing competency to build skills and knowledge for further engagement of OBS for other language groups in the Sepik region. Praise the Lord for the wisdom, health and strength for the Bible Translation Association's OBS team.

A Media and Distribution Consultation, held in Asia in early April, was a great success. This was the third such conference focused on harnessing the power of audio and visual media in order to help people in every language group engage with God’s Word. 225 people attended, representing 81 organizations, and visas were granted to all who applied. Around half of the participants were hands-on workers in language communities, and the other half were media service providers. Many prayers were answered as the consultation was planned and run. Praise God for new partnerships begun, new ministry products designed, and new skills acquired.

Pray for the Urat translation team as they continue the reading through, checking, correcting and all the rigorous process of ensuring that the New Testament manuscript is ready for the next step of typesetting in preparation for publication. Translator David Bilyeme and two other Urat pastors will participate in the Oral Bible Storytelling workshop that begins on the 10th of April.

Praise God that a local seminary is now a partner in the Northern Thai translation project. And praise, too, for the local testers for both the oral Bible story project and for the written translation. Ask God to supply some additional testers for the testing phase of the oral story project. And also pray for a local promoter to come forward who can encourage use of the local language Scriptures in the lives of believers and churches.

Praise God for the good progress that has been made on crafting several new stories to fill out an initial *panorama telling the Bible's story. A testing plan is developing and an individual has been identified who can probably be trained to start testing this initial story set. Pray for Tim and the team who are working to finish the set of 22 stories for Central Thai. And ask God to supply additional testers for this project.

*The Biblical panorama tells the whole story of the Bible and God's redemptive plan through key stories of the Bible in chronological order.

For several years a team has been struggling to complete a set of dramatized Scripture portions. The Scripture passages have been translated, but production has been going extremely slowly. This is due to national unrest and various competing obligations by the producer, director and actors. Praise God that the books of Ruth and Jonah have been completed. Now pray for a breakthrough on the rest of the story set. People in this language community need to hear God's Word and apply it to their lives.

A Media and Distribution Consultation is being planned for a venue in Asia, 7-11 April. Visual arts innovators, digital media specialists, and specialists in oral communication from Europe and Asia will meet to discuss how to harness the power of audio and visual media in order to help people in every language group engage with God's Word. A time of practical training will precede the consultation, 3-6 April. Ask God to help the steering committee as they plan the program and also to guide all those preparing presentations and papers. Pray that new insights, solutions to problems, sharing of resources and solid partnerships will result from this consultation.